10 Annoying Email Habits You Should Break Today

Email has revolutionized the way we communicate at work, bringing us a long way
from the days of mimeographed memos or stenography. But it has
also introduced a whole new array of annoyances into the
workplace — some of which you might be guilty of yourself.

Here are 10 ways your use of email might be annoying your
colleagues:

1. Not answering

When people email you a direct question, ignoring it is nearly as
rude as ignoring a direct question in face-to-face conversation.
And yet, offices everywhere are filled with people who don't
bother responding to emails, often even after repeated
follow-ups. If you're an email ignorer, realize that you're
likely to develop a reputation for being unresponsive and
possibly disorganized, unless you vow to begin getting back to people. Even a simple
"I'm working on it" is better than silence.

2. Requesting read receipts

You might love the idea of knowing exactly when someone has read
your email, but requesting read receipts is likely to rankle your
recipients. It sends the message that you don't trust them to
respond unless you build in some accountability, or that you
don't trust them to respond quickly enough for your liking. If
your coworkers aren't professional enough to respond to emails
without the threat of a read receipt hanging over them, you
should address that problem — but sending out an "I don't trust
you" signal with every communication isn't the way to do it.

3. Sending "urgent" emails that aren't urgent

Like the boy who cried wolf, if you abuse the urgent marker in
email, soon no one will pay any attention to it — and then when
you send that one truly urgent email at some point, no one will
spot it. So hands off the urgent notification unless an email
truly qualifies.

4. Emailing and then calling or coming by in person to repeat
your message

If it's crucial that your message be received immediately, then
email isn't your medium; you should call or show up in person.
This double delivery is so annoying that if you're in the habit
of doing it, you can be confident that your co-workers are grumbling about you right now.

5. Sending replies that make it obvious that you didn't read the
email

Responding "OK" to an email that asked an open-ended question,
asking a question that was answered in the email and answering
only one of three questions asked will make it obvious that you
didn't actually read the email. And while this might be a time
saver for you, it's going to require the sender to email you back
for clarification and ultimately take up more time from both of
you.

6. Writing vague subject lines

One-word phrases like "Question" or "Hello" squander the
potential of the subject line, which when used correctly can help
your recipient find the information in your email in the future.

7. Using colored text, creative fonts, or email stationery

Email isn't intended to be a fancy medium; most people want and
expect plain text and nothing more. Mucking about with the fonts
or colors is more likely to appear tacky than classy or
creative. And using borders of flowers around your email text or
other forms of email stationery looks frumpy and unprofessional.

8. Composing email signatures that go on for paragraphs

There's rarely a need for an email signature to contain anything
more than a few lines of information — that's enough space for
your name, title, company (and/or website), and phone number. And
sure, it's fine to add an additional line with a link to
subscribe to your email list, order your book, or find you on
Twitter. But multiple phone numbers, quotes, slogans, and lengthy
descriptions of the company are unnecessary, generally unread,
and clutter up the message. When your signature is longer than
the average email, that's a bad sign.

9. Requiring recipients to jump through hoops to email you

If you have anti-spam software that requires senders to prove
they're not spam-bots by filling out a CAPTCHA form before their
messages to you will go through, you're (a) annoying people and (b) diminishing the
chances they'll bother.

10. Not paying attention to the email norms of the environment
that you're in

If you have a concise, to-the-point email style but everyone else
in your office uses friendly openings ("Hi Beth, how are you?")
and closings ("Thanks so much for your help"), you risk coming
across as curt or even abrasive. People will often read tones in
your emails, whether you intend them or not, so calibrating the
overall "feel" of your emails to the norms in your office can
help prevent miscommunication.